A chipotle pepper is a jalapeno that has been smoked, a food preservation method as old as agriculture itself. With a bumper crop of jalapenos, pimentos and roasting peppers in need of attention, I smoked two batches of peppers in my biochar trench, with wonderful results. Here’s my report.

The Site

Last fall, I dug a 1.5-by-8 foot trench in an area that had been overrun with perennial weeds. During the winter, I partially burned two small mountains of brambles and other hard-to-compost woody materials. This summer, I grew a successful crop of winter squash in the refilled trench, and reopened it for my pepper smoking project in mid-September. Some folks disapprove of all open burning, but I think most rural homesteads need a safe place to burn stuff from time to time. At our house, we’re experimenting with filling this need with a thoughtfully managed and monitored biochar trench. The terra preta soils of the Amazon, upon which the concept of biochar is based, were created over many centuries of successive smoulderings, so I am curious as to the long-term effects of fire in the hole.

The Fire

You can smoke peppers in a covered grill or smoker, but we don’t eat much meat so I have neither.  Smoking peppers calls for a cool fire that flavors and dries the peppers (as opposed to cooking them), so I built a small fire in the middle of the trench, and placed pairs of bricks covered with aluminum foil (for cleanliness) at both ends to hold my trays of peppers. I used apple wood saved from pruning, but you can also use hickory, mesquite, or other aromatic woods.    

Once the wood was burning well, I partially snuffed the fire with soil, placed the trays of prepared peppers (see below) on the bricks, and covered the trench with a piece of metal roofing. An hour or so later, when I saw only faint wisps of smoke coming from the trench, I restarted the fire with fresh dry twigs and a little more wood. My peppers got a total of three hours of smoking time.

The Peppers

In my first batch, I smoked large strips of jalapeno, roasting and pimento peppers on heat-proof roasting pans. There was no need to oil the pans (the peppers didn’t stick), but I did cover the peppers loosely with aluminum foil. This was mostly to shield them from scattered dirt as I moved the metal cover on and off. It would not be necessary in a smoker or grill.

After smoking for three hours, I continued the drying process in my food dehydrator. The big pieces curled so much that uniform drying was going to take a long time, and I didn’t want to lose smoke flavor from prolonged drying. Besides, the half-dried sweet and sweet/hot peppers tasted like mouthwatering veggie bacon, so I stopped at the half-dry chewy stage and stashed the peppers in the freezer. For my second batch, I cut jalapenos into rings one-third-inch thick. The rings seemed to absorb more smoke flavor than the strips, and they dried faster, too. Within a few hours, the chipotle rings were ready for cool storage in glass jars.

The Drying Process

Finishing off smoked peppers in your dehydrator is a very aromatic process best done outdoors. And please be advised: The smoke smell will linger in your dehydrator, even if you give it a good cleaning as soon as you are done.  The campfire fragrance will wane after a few days, but why fight it? The batch of spiced apples I dried after the smoked peppers filled the house with the combined aromas of cinnamon and barbecue — of the most delicious aromas of the food preservation season.

Barbara Pleasant 

 
Don't ask me where I got my red holiday cactus, because I've had it so long I can't remember. The old girl has been knocked off the porch a time or two, and still she covers herself with blooms just as real winter blows into town. Like many older strains of Schlumbergera, Old Red blooms like mad once a year, but many newer strains can easily be brought into bloom twice -- in fall and again in spring. And their flowers are bigger and better, too. 

You won’t have to search for superior Schlumbergeras, because they are exactly the ones sold in stores this time of year. My favorite pink and white plant began as a rooted cutting bought for $2 at a discount store several Decembers back. It promptly dropped those first buds (as newly purchased plants often do) but since then it has bloomed twice each year. 

The vigor in today’s Schlumbergeras is the result of over 150 years of breeding work. The early-blooming Thanksgiving cactus (S. truncata) has been crossed with Christmas cactus (S. bridgesii) hundreds of times, so most plants carry genes from both parents. In the last 20 years, plant breeders at the University of Massachusetts and in Europe made steady progress improving flower form, size and color, so your eyes are not deceiving you when you marvel at the intricacy of new-generation Schlumbergera blossoms.

Adopting a New Holiday Cactus

• Choose a flower color that works well with your interior décor. As you decide upon a color, keep in mind that light colors such as white, pink and lavender show off better indoors compared to dark purples or reds. 
• Instead of repotting a new plant right away, choose a temporary cachepot (outer pot) for the plant, such as ceramic pot or a basket lined with Spanish moss. 
• The trauma of moving from greenhouse, to store, and then to your home often causes plants to drop most of their buds and flowers. If this happens, gently shift the plant to a slightly larger container, and let it rest in a cool, bright room until late winter. When brought into a warmer, well-lit room, rested plants that shed most of their fall buds often bloom beautifully in spring.

 To Learn More

Purdue University has a great FAQ on holiday cactus, but North Dakota State horticulturalist Ron Smith holds the record for fielding the most questions from cactus keepers, including tales of plants that spontaneously changed colors. 

Veggie production slows to a feeble crawl as winter sets in, but below ground, microorganisms in the soil keep working year-round. To support this process, you can mulch over beds with leaves, grass clippings, straw, or another biodegradable material, or grow cold-hardy cover crops. 

Letting your beds go through winter naked is a cruel option that exposes soil to the triple threat of compaction from rain and ice, erosion caused by wind and water, and nutrient loss from leaching. Mulches and cover crops cushion and protect the soil, and as they decompose they improve the soil's ability to retain nutrients by increasing its organic matter content.

Use leaves, stockpiled grass clippings, old hay, or whatever you have to tuck in your beds for winter.

Consider Your Options

At this late date, mulch is the most practical option for most of us. Use whatever you can get your hands on, and pile it on thick. You can keep mulching all through winter if you don't have snow, because there is no such thing as too much winter mulch. In spring, when you want your beds to dry out and warm up, simply rake the mulch into pathways, or pile it up and re-use it later on, when your plants are up and growing. 

Hardy grains including oats, rye and wheat make great winter cover crops because their extensive roots do a good job of improving the soil's structure, and they will often germinate in cold soil. If you have a small garden, try sowing small patches using handfuls of whole grains purchased at the health food store. The seeds will sprout during mild breaks in the weather. In spring, you can chop the plants into the soil or pull them up and compost them.

Nitrogen-fixing legumes are an even better choice, particularly hairy vetch, Austrian winter peas and crimson clover. These crops need a bit of a head start in fall (planting dates range from September in the North to October in the South), but if you can get them established before winter, you'll have a dream situation in spring. Simply use a sharp hoe to sever each plant at the soil line. Let the foliage dry into a mat for a few days, and then make openings in the mulch to plant your veggies.

What are your beds wearing this winter? Use the comments section below to share your favorite winter soil-soothing techniques.

Winter wheat grown from bulk-bin wheat berries make a fine winter cover crop in a small garden.

1. Always rake with the wind, and rake downhill whenever possible.

2. Share the wealth with your lawn. When the first leaves alight on a still-green lawn, mulch-mow to return the leaves and grass clippings to the soil. In addition to helping your lawn, it's easier to rake turf areas that have been smoothed over by a good mowing.

3. Use your mower to shred leaves to use as mulch or in compost. Set aside whole leaves in a separate pile, and deal with them later when you have more time.

4. Mix leaf species. Leaf-eating microorganisms that get started on thin maple or dogwood leaves will move on to thicker oak leaves as the mixture decomposes.

5. Don’t pick up leaves unless you must. Instead, collect leaves in a tarp or an old sheet, pick up the corners, and carry or drag the bundle to your piles.

6. Match your rake to your leaves, and to your body. At stores, try rakes on for size before you buy. Rakes with metal tines last longer than plastic ones, but plastic tines may be lighter.

7. Minimize how far you move your leaves. Rake them directly onto nearby beds that won’t be worked until spring. Use shredded leaves as mulch beneath foundation shrubs. Maintain leaf piles in different parts of your yard to reduce how far you must drag or carry tarps full of leaves.

8. Once you have your leaves in piles, stomp through them to keep the leaves from blowing away. If you are using a pen or other enclosure, leave it open on one side until you’re through collecting leaves. That way, you can rake or dump right into the pile without lifting your loads over the sides of the bin, and your pile will be accessible for walk-in stomping.

9. Wear gloves to prevent blisters. Cloth gloves are comfy, but any glove that protects your skin from rubbing on the rake handle will suffice.

10. Wear a dust mask when shredding leaves with your mower, especially if you have allergies or are easily irritated by dust.

11. Watch the noise. When you’re not in the mood to mess with your mower, blower, or other noisemaker, give in to the quiet. Rake. 

12. Work a little at a time, and stop when you’ve had enough. Leaf season will last for several weeks, so you have plenty of time to let yourself enjoy the work.

Do you have other tips to help fellow Mother Earth readers this leaf season? Please post them in the Comments section below.

'Tis the season for harvesting leaves, the most abundant free source of organic matter available to most gardeners. Microorganisms in soil and compost transform leaves into bits of organic matter, which helps the soil retain nutrients and moisture.  By themselves, leaves contain small amounts of 16 plant nutrients.

You can stockpile leaves in a bin or pen to use later as compost or mulch, but you don't have to wait until leaves decompose to put them to work. With some shredding assistance from your lawn mower, you can give your leaves useful jobs right now.

1. Turn lawn into garden. Prepare sections of lawn you want to develop into garden beds by smothering them with leaves. First scalp the grass by mowing as close to the surface as possible. Then cover the space with several thicknesses of newspaper or cardboard, and cover the base layer with two inches (or more) or compost or manure. Top with 3 to 4 inches of shredded leaves. 

2. Winterize hardy vegetables. Use shredded leaves to limit winter injury to kale, leeks, carrots and other hardy vegetables. Surround the planting with a low fence or burlap enclosure and fill it with up to 12 inches of shredded leaves. Mulch garlic and perennial onions with up to 6 inches of shredded leaves mixed with the season's last grass clippings.

3. Bury them in a trench. Improve the drainage and organic matter content in garden beds by digging narrow trenches, filling them with shredded leaves, and then covering them up. By late spring, the leaves will be sufficiently decomposed to mix into the soil, or you can plant right into the enriched trenches.

4. Mulch-mow them into your grass. Research done at Michigan State University reveals that when rather thick layers of leaves (to 12 inches) are shredded with a mower and allowed to rot where they fall, the grass greens up faster in spring and grows better the following summer. Just don't expect the leaves to disappear from view until the grass starts growing next year.

5. Mulch your trees. Stockpile shredded leaves until early winter, and then tuck in trees, shrubs, and perennial beds with 3 to 4 inches of shredded leaf mulch. A thick leaf mulch helps moderate soil temperatures in winter, reducing cold-related injuries to shallow roots. Beneficial soil-dwelling fungi are also abundant beneath shredded leaf mulch – one reason why Colorado State University lists mulching among its Ten Commandments of Planting Trees.

There is one precaution: Be careful with black walnut leaves, which can cause reduced growth in many plants, including tomatoes. According to Iowa State University, the juglone in black walnut leaves is usually neutralized by 4 to 6 months of composting.

Do you have other leaf-handling methods that work great at your place? Be sure to share them in the Comments section below.

 
The October beans and most of the Flagrano flageolets are in the freezer, but still my garden is full of beans. As I gather pale pods of black-and-white Yin Yangs, I am amazed at the generosity of the sturdy little plants. Certainly I expected a nice harvest when I planted them, but their giving nature takes me by surprise.

And it's not just the 'Yin-Yangs.' Looking around, I find a bounty of forgotten beans worth gathering: abandoned French Duet pole filet beans holding blue-black seeds, and a few Peking Black crowder peas that reseeded themselves in a back corner of the garden.  

Some of my finds seem too beautiful to eat, for example the nickel-size seeds hidden inside the long, leathery pods of Emperor scarlet runner beans. I toss them in the soup anyway. As they simmer in the company of summer's last tomatoes and peppers, their meatiness will make them seem like little steaks on a spoon.

The petite green limas are so precious that we eat them like garden caviar, slowly and in small amounts. They take forever to grow and are equally slow to shell, but there is no doubt that they are worth it. Besides, the bumblebees love them.

The biggest and best beans get set aside for replanting, but still it feels extravagant to be eating hundreds and hundreds of seeds. Satisfying, too, in a way that cannot be felt unless one grows the beans. You give them a home, bring them water when they need it, and step in when foxtail and crabgrass threaten to take over the planting.

It is a partnership in which you must keep up your end of the deal, and now you can claim your prize. As you run your hand through a bowl of drying beans, they might as well be gold coins. But what is the prize – the beans themselves, or the feeling of wealth that comes with having them? Either way, bean season is worth savoring.

Migrating populations of monarch butterflies are predicted to be on the low side this year, but that doesn't mean you won't notice them. If you look up in the sky late in the afternoon during the next few weeks, chances are good that you will see determined monarch butterflies flitting toward Mexico.

Butterfly watchers in the upper Midwest are already seeing roosts in which dozens of monarchs gather in a single bush or tree for the night. Here in southwest Virginia, a continuous stream of monarchs are stopping to sip nectar from the native asters and zinnias I planted just for them.

Want to track this year's migration and report sightings? The animated migration map, based on the citizen reporting system hosted by JourneyNorth.org, provides great graphics. Or, you can participate in the forum for sightings sponsored by MonarchWatch.org.

Sometimes it may look like monarchs are flying in the wrong direction, but don't worry. Recent scientific papers by neurobiologist Steven R. Reppert have identified a sophisticated inner clock mechanism that enables monarchs to constantly reorient themselves, insuring that they stay on a sound migratory course.